Via Chizumatic, I learn of a new anime series called Shina Dark. (Framegrab stolen from Subculture Anime Blog.)
I won’t copy/paste the whole story description, but apparently the basic plot is that the nations of the world send a thousand beautiful maidens to the island realm of the demon lord Exoda in order to fulfill his lusts and stop him from rampaging across the world. Only, it turns out that Exoda (who doesn’t really look that demonic) isn’t all that lustful, but no one wants to accept the “tainted” women back. So Exoda lets them stay on his island and establish the new nation of Shina Dark.
After coining the term “harem horde” to describe this type of show, Steven Den Beste observes:
[T]his is possibly the best explaination I’ve heard for a series setup to explain just why it is that you’ve got a place where there are a thousand bodacious babes and only one guy who doesn’t want any of them. The nations of the world would have picked the most beautiful girls they had to offer as sacrifices.
But it’s still a stupid idea.
Which I more or less agree with. But I’m kind of sad that this core concept is being “wasted” on a harem horde show, because - freed from the constraints and purposes of that genre - I think this “stupid idea” can become a rather good one.
Step One: Exoda, instead of - so far as I can gather from the frame grabs - being essentially a human male serving as male lead for the harem, becomes a truly non-human entity. Even if he occasionally takes human form, he isn’t one, and he isn’t interested in romance with the women any more than he was in sating his non-existent vile lusts on them in the first place. He becomes a disinterested, if vaguely benevolent, landlord.
So, what is our show about, then? The women establishing their new nation and society. There’s some obvious challenges there: each of these women is originally from a different country and culture, probably with some language barriers. Practical skills for settling and uninhabited island are likely to be thin on the ground.
And then we get the internal conflict. Beyond the siple of question of who’s in charge, I can see a lot of distinct factions arising. Some might worship Exoda, others might hate him and even want to kill him. Some might be better off on the island and others might struggle to find a way to return to their old lives. Some might hate the outside world for abandoning them and try pirate raids to get much-needed supplies.
External conflict would come in later in the series, as the nations of the world react to Shina Dark’s rise. Do world powers feel threatened? A world that sends 1000 women to appease a demon is probably not terribly feminist, so that angle can get played too. I imagine a climax with a multi-national fleet sent to destroy Shina Dark and kill or reclaim the women, as all the internal conflicts come to a head…
Hmm. Now I’ve spent much too long and too many words thinking about this. I might need to check out this series when it comes out and see whether it does anything like this with the concept, or whether it just plays out a mostly generic “harem horde’ story.
Sadly, I imagine the latter is much more likely.